


Lessons In Restraint

by Bardicsidhe (Scylla)



Category: Dinotopia, Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-25
Updated: 2010-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-14 02:49:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scylla/pseuds/Bardicsidhe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dolphinbacks aren't even supposed to get this far. But while it's an achievement that Tristan, Seto, and Joey didn't end up spending their lives at the hatchery after they shipwrecked on Dinotopia, it's still pretty unsatisfying to fail so hard at something you honestly want to do. Even more unsatisfying to learn that everything you thought you knew was probably wrong. Tristan's learning, and Tradewind is forgiving, and so there is hope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lessons In Restraint

"Stop _steering_!"

Instructor Kendee was a smudge of blue between the brilliant red-painted shoulders of his Skybax as the creature's massive leathery wings caught buckets of air and rose abreast of Tristan and his mount. Tristan clamped down on a bitter swell of irritation, as yet _again_ , Kendee singled him out for correction.

Everyone had their vices; a dolphinback wasn't even supposed to _make_ it this far. _Especially_ one who'd been bucked onto the beach in his early twenties, complete with all of his bad habits and hardwired misperceptions. Just because everyone else got snapped at didn't make it any easier to take guff over making the same stupid mistake, over and over and over. Maybe Joey didn't have his bad habits, but dammit, _Seto_ was a control freak too, why wasn't _he_ having problems?

Some of Tristan's agitation translated itself to his Skybax, Tradewind, when he reached across the neckrest of the saddle to touch her and apologize. She chattered at him, the deep resonance of the throaty sound vibrating through him as well, and he relaxed.

"Allow your Skybax to fly without guidance until I tell you otherwise," Kendee ordered, his voice pitched to carry over the hiss of wind channeling through the twisting ridges of Canyon City, " _Trust_ her." With that, he and his mount, Strikehigh, planed away from them and returned to monitoring the entire squadron of fliers from above. He did not continue to dog Tristan as conventional teachers might...and that was the difference between Dinotopia and the modern world. He trusted Tristan to do what he needed to do, because a shirker would not become a Skybax Rider.

Tradewind bobbed her head against the air rushing past, and once again Tristan felt her steadying rumble of reassurance. He folded his arms back, around the neckrest, in a sign of submission. _Trust her. Stop trying to control her._ "Okay, Tradewind. It's up to you."

Within seconds of his acquiescence, Tradewind executed a barrel roll with the precision of a fighter jet, and plummeted like a rock.

"NO! WAIT! STOP, dammit!" Tristan shouted, instinctively grabbing onto the saddle while his body anticipated instant grisly death. The bottom of the canyon was hundreds of feet below, a tiny scrap of river just barely visible. His stomach lurched and his knuckles whitened on the woven mat of the saddle pad.

Instantly, Tradewind evened out, planing her wings neatly to rise up among his classmates, docile as a collie. Through the wind whistling past his ears, he heard her chuckling like a duck. She was _laughing_ at him.

"You _turkey_! What's your problem, huh? You're trying to kill me an' all y'can do is **laugh**?"

Tradewind only dipped her massive beak and shook her head. Realization struck home and Tristan flushed with chagrin, realizing that he'd been tested...and failed yet again. Was he ever going to be cut out for this? Saurians weren't horses, weren't dogs, certainly weren't big elephants or oversized minivans. They were far more intelligent than he or his companions had given them credit at the beginning, he _knew_ that. Unfortunately, it was proving difficult to convince his inner alpha wolf to back the fuck _off_.  
Tradewind was unusually forgiving - most of the creatures known as _Quetzalcoatlus skybax_ were nowhere near so patient with hardheaded students. Maybe that was why she'd gravitated to him in the beginning, when he, Seto, and Joey entered the rookery for the first time, awaiting the evaluation of the giant winged saurians. Did she know he was going to need her help?

 _Needed_ her. Tristan's face clouded with extreme concentration. Maybe that was the key.

"I've got a long ways to go, don't I? Okay, you win. I'm ready, do your worst." Tristan unfolded one hand from his self-imposed restraint to rest against the leathery skin of Tradewind's shoulder. He could feel the muscles pumping hard beneath his touch, while the Skybax's great wings rotated in a slow ballet, dancing on the backs of the thermals. "I need you, Tradewind. I'll fall without you."

A mighty cry tore from Tradewind's chest, and she shot upward in a rush of powerful wings, until they exploded into the blinding sunlight above Canyon City, warming the flowing natural formations of rock, bridges and tunnels, homes carved into the face of the red-brown stone. It all looked so small now, so clear, like brightly-colored pebbles beneath spangles of cool water. Fear touched him with cool tendrils, but he felt the strong back of his Skybax bearing him up, trusting him even as he trusted her, buoying them both from the ever-present threat of death.

He would not fall, _she_ was there.

Gratitude flowed warm between them, and fear drained away, replaced with exhilaration and triumph. Tradewind shrieked again, and this time Tristan joined her, whooping while the blood sang with adrenaline in his veins.

Joey and Seto heard Tradewind's cry, and peered upward along with their classmates, to see a living canopy of glowing red and gold stretched wide against the sun.

**Author's Note:**

>  _Dinotopia_ is a book series by James Gurney, illustrating an island where man and dinosaur coexist peacefully in cities of patchwork culture. Typically, people who discover Dinotopia did so via shipwreck or now possibly plane crash and never escape. The reefs beyond the island are forbidding, and the weather so impossible to predict that no boat can hope to get through.


End file.
